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Israeli police arrest 5 Jews for allegedly spitting on Christian pilgrims amid spate of attacks
(JTA) — Israeli Police arrested five Jews who allegedly spit at Christian pilgrims, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to show “zero tolerance” for assailants, as Christian leaders in Israel called for more action to combat a spate of attacks on their community.
The five suspects who were arrested are accused of perpetrating spitting incidents on Monday and Wednesday. The attacks are two of several that have occurred in Jerusalem’s Old City, according to Haaretz, which caught the Monday incident on video.
In the video, the pilgrims were bearing a wooden cross while following a recreation of Jesus’s path through the city before his crucifixion. The spitters were in a crowd of Jews wearing prayer shawls and carrying a collection of four species of plants used ritually during the weeklong holiday of Sukkot, which began on Friday evening.
The arrests came after Netanyahu condemned the attacks. “Israel is fully committed to safeguarding the sacred right of freedom of worship and pilgrimage to the holy sites of all faiths,” the prime minister said in a statement released Tuesday.
“I strongly condemn any attempt to inflict harm on worshippers, and we will take urgent steps against such actions,” he said. “Offensive behavior toward worshippers is a desecration and is unacceptable. We will show zero tolerance toward any harm to worshippers.”
The Haaretz video spurred a new round of attention on the attacks, which experts on interfaith relations in Jerusalem say are frequent and intensify during holidays. The incidents are also the latest in a string of dozens of attacks on Christians across Israel this year, ranging from the toppling of a statue of Jesus to vandalism of a Protestant cemetery to clashes between Christians and Jews at a monastery in Haifa.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, said at a press conference last month that attacks on pilgrims in the Old City have “become more common,” according to Haaretz. He added, “There’s no doubt that there are rabbis who approve or even encourage it.”
Israeli Religious Affairs Minister Michael Malkieli disputed that Jewish religious authorities condoned the spitting attacks, saying in a statement that he “forcefully condemns the phenomenon of spitting at Christians in Jerusalem. This is not the way of Torah, and there’s no rabbi who supports and legitimizes such vile behavior. We must denounce it, and continue to respect all of the peoples who enter the gates of the holy city.”
But though he also condemned the spitting, Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, suggested that the perpetrators need not be arrested. And Elisha Yered, a former aide to another far-right lawmaker, posted to social media on Monday, “This is a good time to recall that the custom of spitting next to priests or churches is an ancient, longstanding Jewish custom.”
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The post Israeli police arrest 5 Jews for allegedly spitting on Christian pilgrims amid spate of attacks appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
The post Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
The post Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.